118 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO i666 



an accurate map, correcting many faults which geographers have committed 

 in the description of Abyssinia, which they believe to be much greater than it 

 really is. 



This supposed, he easily shows why the Nile yearly overflows about the end 

 of June : for, as at that time there falls much rain in Ethiopia, it must needs 

 be that the Nile, whose source is in that country, should then overflow when 

 those rains begin, and again subside when they cease. 



There are besides in this book two other tracts. In the first, M. Vossius main- 

 tains that the soul of animals is nothing but fire ; that there are no invisible 

 atoms ; nor so much as any pores even in the skin of man. Here he treats 

 also of refractions, and alleges the examples of several persons, who have 

 seen the sun by means of refraction when he was really under the hori- 

 zon. 



In the second, he discourses of some points of the mechanics ; and relates, 

 among other things, that the arrows and battering rams (Aries) of the ancients, 

 did as much execution as our muskets and cannons. 



III. Le Discernement du Corps et de I'Ame, par M. de Cordemoy. 



This French treatise examines the different operations of the soul and body, 

 and the secret of their union ; pretending to discover to every one, what he is, 

 and what is transacting within him. 



Patterns of the Tables proposed to he made for observing Tides. 

 By Sir Rob. Moray. N' 18, p. 311. 



Of these patterns, one is for marking the precise time of high and low water 

 during one month, that is between new and new moon, or full and full moon. 

 The other for marking the degrees of the risings and fallings of the water in 

 equal spaces of time, and the velocity of its motion at several heights ; with 

 the degrees of heat and cold, &c. these particulars having every one a ruled 

 column allotted for each. 



Other Inquiries concerning the Sea. By Mr. Boyle. N° 18, p. 315. 



What is the proportion of salt in the water of difl^erent seas ? Whether in the 

 same sea it be always the same ? If not, how does it differ ? 



What is the relative gravity of sea waters to fresh waters, and what to one 

 another ? Whether it varies not in summer and winter, and on other accounts ? 

 And whether in the same season its gravity proceeds only from the greater or 

 less proportion of salt in it, and not sometimes from other causes ? And 

 what are the difl^ering gravities of the sea water, according to the climates ? 



